Return of Charlie's angels...

Last updated at 17:38 18 March 2005

No doubt it could take up a whole chapter in a book of modern etiquette. Just how many ex-girlfriends should one invite to one's wedding?

In Prince Charles's case it seems there is no limit, as invitations to his forthcoming nuptials have been dropping on to the doormats of the girls who came and went in the first flush of his bachelor days.

So while his family - as we shall see - remain decidedly lukewarm about this most unconventional of royal marriages, Charles can, at least, be assured of the company of the women who might have made princely brides themselves.

First among these is Lucia Santa Cruz, whose role in the Charles-Camilla relationship has secured her place in their romantic history.

The highborn daughter of a Chilean ambassador to London was the Prince's first real girlfriend.

They met at Cambridge University, where Charles was a student, and their affair was passionate and exciting, and continued after he graduated.

Before leaving Britain to return home, she did Charles one further service - introducing him to a bubbly, extrovert girl called Camilla Shand, the future Mrs Parker Bowles.

Charles later became godfather to Lucia's first child, and they remain friends to this day - as he does with Lady Jane Wellesley, another old flame on the guest-list.

The daughter of the Duke of Wellington, she was the first girl to look a likely princess. But life in the royal goldfish bowl did not appeal to independentminded Lady Jane, and more than 30 years later she remains single.

Invitations have also gone to Amanda Knatchbull, the late Earl Mountbatten's granddaughter and the first girl Charles asked to marry him; and Sabrina Guinness, a highspirited member of the banking side of the Guinness clan.

Charlie's angels will be joined at next month's celebration by a number of the Prince's showbusiness chums - among those invited are actor Stephen Fry, Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries, Rowan Atkinson and Ab Fab actress Joanna Lumley.

So what is the attitude of Charles's siblings to this marriage? Do they share the views of the Queen, who is downright cool on the whole business?

An exchange in Chile between Prince Edward and Lucia Santa Cruz may be illuminating. When told she'd see him at the wedding, Edward replied: 'If it happens.'